LCPS District 4 candidates discuss finding a new superintendent and healing the community

The candidates seeking to replace John Schwebke on the Las Cruces Public Schools Board of Education both agree that a national search led by a headhunter isn’t the way to find the district’s next superintendent.

Larry Garcia and Bonnie Votaw are vying to replace Schwebke, who is not seeking re-election, as the board member representing District 4. Early voting is underway for several seats on Doña Ana County’s three school boards, and polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Feb. 6.The new board members will take office at the beginning of March.

In Las Cruces, the focus of the election has been the district’s inability to find a match for the superintendent job since former Superintendent Jesse Gonzales left amid scandal in 2001. Following national searches, the board has hired two superintendents since then, but both – Louis Martinez and Sonia Diaz – were chased out by controversy and, instead of healing, wounds from Gonzales’ controversial tenure have grown.

Larry Garcia served on the school board for several months following the 2002 recall of board members Mary Tucker and Jeanette Dickerson. He represented District 5, but redistricting forced him from office. He was a member of the board when it began the search that ended with Martinez’s hiring, but left office before the final decision was made.

Garcia said he wants to search for a new superintendent in surrounding districts – Las Cruces, Alamogordo, Hatch, Gadsden and El Paso – because he believes “there are plenty of people locally who can do this job.”

Garcia said he wants to hire “somebody who knows our culture,” and who will “only make the changes that need made.”

Votaw said the new superintendent search needs to be “very different” from past searches. Rather than hiring a headhunter to conduct a national search, she wants to conduct a sort of “talent search” similar to “scouting an athlete.” She said the focus, at first, should be in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and maybe Texas, and suspects that would turn up “plenty of options.”

The problem with hiring a national headhunter, Votaw said, is that it “automatically puts you in a pool of sharks.” Candidates recommended by such companies typically move around frequently to higher-paying jobs.

“What’s happening in Las Cruces is not atypical, unfortunately,” she said.

‘A total cultural mismatch’

Diaz, Votaw said, was “a total cultural mismatch.”

“We just didn’t get it, and she didn’t get it either,” Votaw said, citing that as evidence that hiring a national headhunter didn’t work well.

Garcia said the board must approach the current superintendent search differently than it has the previous two.

“We are hiring overaggressive superintendents (who are) coming in and making changes to quick and stepping on too many toes,” he said.

Votaw said a network exists in the school district that can help those conducting a search find talent in surrounding states. She suggested that those conducting the search – be it board members themselves or a committee the board forms – find a match by visiting candidates’ school districts and talking with locals in their towns.

Garcia said Charles White, a former associate superintendent in Las Cruces who was passed up for the top job when Diaz was hired, would be “an excellent choice.” White was also an applicant when the board hired Martinez – a process that started when Garcia was on the board but concluded after he left – and he said he supported White’s candidacy at that time.

When asked for her thoughts on White, Votaw said she doesn’t know whether he’s willing to be a candidate, but said if he is, he should apply.

Votaw said all applicants will have flaws, and it’s important to look for a realistic candidate who shares the board’s vision and can carry it out, instead of having the goal of “getting some kind of exalted idealized superintendent.”

“This is a more pragmatic approach,” she said.

‘They need to be better attuned’

The two candidates also agree that the board hasn’t done enough to genuinely involve the community in its superintendent searches. In the past, the board has sought input, but members of the community “don’t think that’s an authentic process,” Votaw said.

She said that has contributed “quite a bit” to the problems plaguing the school district.

“The motive has probably been pure. I don’t think that people are on the board because they want to mess things up,” she said. “But the decision-making process has not played out.”

Garcia said the board was also slow to react to problems with Diaz and Martinez because its members weren’t in touch with the community, which he said was well aware of the problems long before board members.

“They should have taken better sound and timely action on the problems,” he said. “They just let it go too far. They need to be better attuned to what’s going on in their district.”

Votaw said she questions why the last two superintendents “came out shooting” and wonders if they were directed to make major staff changes by board members. Regardless, she said, that was not the way to lead the district forward and heal wounds.

“People have to be with you, not against you, so when you start making war right out of the block, you’re not going to move the district,” Votaw said.

She called for the creation and fostering of a “shared purpose” and vision for the district – one created by the community.

‘Somebody who relates to people’

Board members aren’t the only ones to blame for the turmoil in the district, Garcia said. He believes there are people on all sides in the fight for control of the district who haven’t been willing to communicate or compromise.

“They’re so entrenched in their corners that they don’t want to step out and find common ground,” Garcia said. “I think there are some issues on both sides.”

Garcia has ideas for how board members can stabilize the situation. Noting that superintendents are much better educated about the system, he said board members need to guard against becoming too close to the superintendent.

“They need to keep an arm’s length away from the superintendent,” Garcia said. “They can easily be influenced by the superintendent and the superintendent can end up running things.”

“At the same time, they need to keep a tight leash on the superintendent,” he said.

Garcia said board members can also reach out to the community through better communication and more visits to schools. He said it’s important that the board form a “logical strategic plan” with the help of the community.

Garcia and Votaw said a new superintendent, once hired, will have to be instrumental in healing the district and moving it forward.

The current board plans to put in a place an interim superintendent in the next few weeks who will serve until sometime in 2008, to allow time for a search for a permanent superintendent. Votaw said it will be hard for the district to move forward until it hires the right superintendent.

“You tend to degenerate a little more into crisis management… even with the best interim superintendent,” Votaw said. “It’s sort of a housekeeping function.”

She wants the superintendent search to begin quickly after an interim is hired.

“We just have to have somebody who relates to people and will go out to schools and shake hands with people and listen to them,” Votaw said.

Visit Votaw’s campaign Web site by clicking here. Garcia does not have a Web site.

Look for additional articles on the school board candidates before the Feb. 6 election.